Dolphins are 0 for 10 in Foxboro as the Dolphins suffered their first loss of the season. Let’s jump into it!

How did Tannehill do? Had his worst game of the season. He just couldn’t get going. He was sacked twice but you know, he wasn’t very accurate with his throws. Even threw an interception. We needed a strong performance from him and just didn’t get it.

How was the running game? Atrocious. The Dolphins rushed the ball for a pitiful 56 yards and 41 of those came from Dolphins RB Frank Gore. Gase was trying his best to get Dolphins RB Kenyan Drake going early on but it wasn’t happening. Do you think maybe it’s time to active Dolphins RB Kalen Ballage? I think it is. It’s clear through the quarter way point of the season, that teams have planned for containing Drake as he has yet to get going this season.

How about the receivers? In case it hasn’t been any clearer, the offense was downright dismal. There were no explosive plays. Patriots D sucked the air out of the stadium.

How’d they do in the red-zone? Dolphins continue to improve in the red-zone. They only made one trip today, but they made it count. That puts them at 5 for 10 on the year. Dolphins have come a long way from that season opener performance of 1 for 5.

On to the defense. The d-line couldn’t get any pressure up front. I was wrong about that. The run defense had its worse performance of the year, surrendering 175 rushing yards. Patriots RB Sony Michel shined in his debut with 112 rushing yards. Patriots RB James White had a long 22-yard run but where he shined was the passing game as he was the team’s leading receiver with 8 catches for 68 yards. He had a td both on the ground and in the air. The secondary had a solid day. Yeah, they gave up 274 yards in the air but Dolphins CB Bobby McCain had his second career interception of Patriots QB Tom Brady and Dolphins DB Minkah Fitzpatrick made his first career interception.

Did special teams’ matter? Not really. The defensive match-up I predicted turned into a slaughterhouse show. Patriots K Stephen Gostkowski wisely would kick the ball out of bounds for a touchback, negating any opportunity for Dolphins WR Jakeem Grant to make a play.

Final Thoughts: Dolphins took the loss, but there is a lot to hang our heads high on. The Dolphins are 3-1 at the quarter way-point. That is a tremendous accomplishment for a franchise that has not really been able to get off to a fast start in recent years.

A Look Ahead: This is my final highlighted game until December. At that point, we face the Bills twice, the Patriots again, plus 2017 playoff contender teams, Vikings and Jaguars. All crammed into one month. Yikes! If we can win 6 of our next 7 games heading into December, I think that pretty much guarantees us a playoff berth.

Impact Players:

  1. Bobby McCain-McCain had an interception late in the first quarter when the team was only down by 3. That constitutes an impact play for me.
  2. Minkah Fitzpatrick-You could argue the that the interception was in garbage minutes, but that interception set up the Brock Osweiler td drive. So, I had to count it as an impact play.

Game Grade: D. Despite this rough game, I did see some positives. As expected Brady challenged this young secondary and they responded. It’s a pity, it didn’t result in a victory.

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